Don't Stop B-lieving

Banbury made their third visit of the season to Kenilworth on Monday night to play our B team, and just like the other two occasions (KO Cup and A team matches) they once again "wound up on the wrong end of a gun", to quote the Allman Brothers. However, its a very brave man who would expect the same to happen when they make their fourth visit to play the C team in the New Year!

Banbury's league title aspirations have taken a bit of a hit lately, with consecutive losses to our A team, Stratford and Warwick University and their losing run extended to four as the B team rediscovered its winning mojo which had been rudely derailed at Solihull last time out. The evening got off to a rather predictable start, though, when David was unable to overcome a 300 point rating disadvantage against Banbury's formidable IM, James Jackson, but only went down after a spirited effort to mix things up with the Black pieces. At a crucial stage David offered the exchange for a pawn, but James simply declined the offer and played on David's weak pawns, eventually prevailing in a double rook ending.

Things then improved, as Joshua played an uncharacteristically normal/sound game with the White pieces against Paul Rowan, eventually swapping off into a level material but winning king and pawn ending, where his king couldn't be stopped from invading. Not too long later we took the lead, as Bruce played the game of the evening to beat Gary Jackson with powerful pawn and piece play on Board 3. A passed White pawn got to c6 and the Black king was also under a major attack on the dark squares. As Bruce has delightedly pointed out to me, he is currently the club's 4th highest rated player and he certainly played like it in this game.

Which left me in play against Danut Joian. The game had been pretty boring and heading towards an inevitable draw until the position burst into life as we both came under time pressure. I was the first to crack, though, blundering a pawn due to a simple oversight, but Danut then mistakenly gave up his bishop for my knight to enter a rook and pawn ending where he had f and g pawns on their starting squares and I had a pawn on f5. A long period of manoeuvring occurred as the White king tried to get in to attack my sole pawn, but this proved impossible and eventually we ended up with a rook each and a lone f pawn for White. I've somehow managed to lose this ending twice, despite having my king blockading the last opposition pawn, but I like to think I've learned my lesson and comfortably held it on this occasion (for the second time in a few weeks, in fact). And so, after what I imagine was the best part of 80 moves, the match was eventually ours.

The win was not enough to lift us back into second place, as Warwick Uni have a much better game points score, but it was a very powerful team effort against such strong opposition. Don't give up on the B team just yet - in fact, keep on B-lieving.

All's Well That Ends Well

It seems highly appropriate to continue Ben's Shakespearean references when reporting on the A team's latest match, given it involved a trip to Stratford to take on a team that had recently scored a very impressive 3.5-0.5 win over Banbury.

We were down to just 2 registered A team players amongst the quartet I had managed to assemble for this encounter, so were very much not at full strength. So it was a bit of a relief to discover that Stratford weren't either, as they were missing their regular Board 1, Ben Larkin, against whom Javier normally draws in about 10 minutes flat.  Mind you, as I was giving him a lift, he would have been hanging around for some time if he'd tried that approach again!

Last season this fixture was interrupted by about 4 power cuts, but the National Grid seems to have got its act together as far as the supply to this part of Stratford is concerned, as the lights stayed on all night. (Well done, Ben!) But that didn't stop it getting very dark for our intrepid warriors at one point in the evening. This was when Mike managed to lose from what looked like an overwhelming position against Carl Hibbard on Board 4. This was quite a reverse for our prospects, as I'd mentally marked this up as 1-0 to us some time earlier and seeing it become 0-1 was very painful. Especially as the brutal reality of these 4 board matches meant we needed to score 2.5 points from the remaining 3 games to secure the points. Thankfully, that was when things turned in our favour.

Javier had played a very shaky opening on Board 1 against Richard McNally and there seemed to be a very simple queen exchange line that would have left Richard better and with almost zero risk. But Richard's style is generally never to exchange queens, which meant that the game continued with plenty of firepower on  the board. Javi finally woke up and started taking pawns while Richard - of course! - went for a king attack. But White had no weaknesses and was able to transpose to a rook and opposite bishops ending with 2 extra pawns. However, the win may not have been trivial, except that Richard overlooked a rook check on the 6th rank which forked king and bishop and won a piece.

Another win came our way when I beat Alexander Roberts on Board 3. From a highly theoretical opening I got what I thought was zero advantage, though the engine gives a clear White edge. I decided to spice things up by sacking the exchange for a pawn and - in my dreams - chances of mate on g7 or h8 due to my control of the dark squares. All fiction, of course. The sac wasn't very good and the position was level-ish until Alex rather needlessly gave back the exchange and I was able to shove my passed d pawn down the board to force resignation. Somewhat fortuitous and probably undeserved.

Which meant we were ahead in the match and just needed a draw to secure the victory. Andrew had been pressing with Black against David Gardiner for most of the evening and would have played on had we needed the full point, but being a great team guy decided to take a draw to win the match. Very pragmatic and just what a hyper-nervous team captain likes to see. Other club members please take note!!

This win temporarily put us three points clear at the top of the table, but Warwick Uni's subsequent 3-1 away win at Banbury has brought the gap back to 1 point, though we have a game in hand.

If anybody thinks the Shakespeare references mean that this week's song is going to be David Essex singing "A Winter's Tale" they can think again. My wife likes him and the song, but she doesn't write these reports, I do! And I much prefer something like this!

Nothing to do with Shakespeare of course. Just the best rock instrumental song ever. God bless whoever invented the electric guitar, and God bless the truly brilliant Dickey Betts for the way he played it. Top Gear would have been a lot better if they'd used all of this awesome live version for the intro and slashed the time allocated to Jeremy Clarkson and his chums!

"The rain it raineth every day"

 There is of course always reason to be more cheerful than the title of this blog suggests. However, it is now the start of Advent, so what better way to mark this than through a reference to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night? Besides, it was pouring down on Monday evening, when Kenilworth C played Olton A, and to quote another renowned philosopher (Ruben Amorim) it did feel as if "a storm is coming" in more ways than one...

We had already come out on top against Olton twice this season, in both the away leg of this fixture and the U8750 cup, but I was very keen to make it a hat-trick.  Ultimately, Olton A and Leamington A are our fellow relegation battlers and two points on Monday would have been extremely useful. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Rhys got the team off to a terrific start on Board 3 against Mike Hollier. When I looked he seemed to be in an ending with some nice looking tactical opportunities. When I next glanced over, he was a rook up. The conversion thereafter was very swift. Rhys showed me the computer analysis yesterday - and he'd played at 99% accuracy (to Mike's 88%) with zero inaccuracies. A terrific effort on Rhys's part.

Meanwhile on Board 4, I was engaged in a wild battle against Richard Liszewski which was extremely double-edged. I certainly thought I was winning and sacrificed a pawn to open up the f-file to give me a very pleasant looking attack. At which point the match began to turn. Richard dug in and found a good defence. Meanwhile, Michal and Dhiarya lost their games on Boards 1 and 2 respectively. Unfortunately I didn't see either of these, but I'm sure they were good battles.

All of which meant I needed to win to split the points, but by this time I was down to rook and 2 vs rook and 3, and my winning prospects were precisely zero. I almost don't need to bother writing that I was also playing on the increment and Richard had ten minutes left. Fortunately my rook was well placed to slow Richard's king up, Richard's pawns weren't brilliant and I was able to get my king into the crucial defensive zone on the board. One of those situations where instinctively I thought it should be a draw (and Mark Cundy told me afterwards that he thought it was drawn from some way out) but equally it's easy to go wrong when you are having to play instantly.

Eventually Richard was forced to give up his extra pawn to try and make progress, but by this point I knew I had the situation covered. We shook hands at King and pawn v King and pawn, where neither of us could queen. Despite my draw earlier in the season with Richard, I still see him as a difficult opponent for me based on our previous games, so I was both slightly relieved and disappointed that it wasn't enough. So 1.5 - 2.5 to Olton on the night.

This would have been a good match to win, but we are still competitively placed, with one more game this side of Christmas. So it's still all to play for, and who knows, maybe we'll be singing in the rain before too long.

Eight Days A Week

At least that's what it feels like, after important KCC matches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. With 2 wins and a loss, the week can be judged, on balance, a success, especially as it ended with us sitting on top of the two leagues we play in.

It got off to a mega-start as the A team welcomed current Leamington League leaders, Banbury A, to a head-on collision of the two strongest teams in the league. As usual this season, Banbury were headed by IM James Jackson, who was doubtless out for revenge against Jude after losing the decisive game in our earlier KO Cup encounter a few weeks back. I was present for the first hour of the match and when I left it was naturally all to play for. Javier and Bruce both appeared to be slightly better with the White pieces, while Jude seemed to have plenty of activity, but a slightly loose structure. (Though I am clearly not qualified to make such judgements!) As for Keatan, I was slightly worried by his knight on b4 which seemed to be stranded, with no retreat squares if White could arrange the move pawn to a3. Thankfully there was a knight on that square for the time being, but my immediate thought was that this was a difficult position.

So, of course, the first message I got later on, was from Nash telling me Keatan had won against Gary Jackson! I'm giving up the prophecy game completely, as I always get it wrong. And then a bit later, a photo appeared showing the completed official match score-card (or tatty scrap of paper as its also known) which told me that we had chalked up a significant win!

Now that's what I call impressive!

So many congratulations to the A team for a big performance which lifted us to the top of the table for the first time this season - at the expense of our B team! Sorry I can't do the individual players justice with a detailed report of their performances, but hey! - you guys are humble and are not looking for cheap praise. Virtue is its own reward after all. Especially not from the likes of me.

Tuesday night and it was a Coventry League encounter away against Warwick Uni B. We should have gone one better than Monday and won 4-0, but yours truly let the side down by losing from a position where I was +6. It didn't help that my opponent continually transgressed the Laws of Chess by moving the pieces with one hand and pressing the clock with the other. But no excuses from me. I played a good game, but ruined it with one bad move. My own fault. Mike, Ben and Phil all won readily enough. Phil was soon an exchange up on Board 4 and later upgraded this to a rook before liquidating to an ending where he had a single bishop left, but his opponent didn't. Mike won a pawn in the opening but couldn't remember his decades old theory and was soon a pawn down. White generously gave it back and it came down to a battle between White's rook, knight and two connected queenside pawns against Mike's rook, bishop and three connected kingside pawns which Mike won. I didn't see much of Ben's game, but when I did look he had a queen and his opponent didn't, which as you can imagine was a fairly important advantage! So 3-1 and we're top at Christmas for the second year running. Let's hope it goes a bit better than last season!

And so to the end of an exhausting week, and an away match at Solihull for the B team. Unfortunately, Solihull managed to get their 4 strongest players to the board for the first time this season, and coupled with our frailties on the night, it was enough to send us down to a 2.5-1.5 defeat. Thereby missing the chance for the B team to go back to the top of the table. Andy drew very quickly on Board 1 against Don Mason, but there was a long wait until the next game to finish. But as this was Mike losing to Ray Carpenter after one careless move wrecked an equal position, things started to look a bit bleak. I had been completely winning out of the opening against Andrew McCumiskey on Board 2, after his Jobava London opening went belly up. As this is the opening I detest more than any other (sorry Paul and the CCA Opening Handbook team!) I was exceedingly pleased with myself. But I then failed to continue with my attack when I could have pulverised the White king into submission with a bit more imagination. I then almost messed up a completely drawn ending, but somehow saved myself by the skin of my teeth. Which left Bruce needing to beat Akshath Shivakumar on Board 3 to save the match. It was very complicated, but Bruce's position had a lot of holes and he was in considerable trouble. He tried one last throw of the dice with an exchange sac, but the Black defences held quite easily and as the clocks ticked down, Black gave perpetual check to clinch the match for Solihull.

I rather telegraphed this week's song. So here it is.

B-rutal

There was no messing about (except by me, of course) when the B team travelled to take on Leamington A on Tuesday. I had managed to assemble a pretty useful team for our encounter with the current bottom placed team in Division 1 and most of the big guns duly delivered. But of course, there's always an exception and there are no prizes for guessing who was less big gun than small water-pistol on the night.

Dhairya made his B team debut, and found himself facing another of Paul's CCA stars, Anvi Prabhakaran, who was herself making her Leamington A debut and who had been one of our guest participants in the Mickey Adams simul. (Its a shock to find them playing against us rather than for us!) Dhairya was in no mood to mess about and took over with Black from an early stage, soon marching his king side pawns up the board and winning the exchange. The rest of the pieces were steadily exchanged and when Anvi tried a desperate stalemate trick Dhairya sidestepped it and delivered mate instead.

In very different fashion, David subsequently made it 2-0 by downing Ben Egid on Board 1. David seemed to play relentlessly to win a weak Black pawn on d5 and when he finally annexed this, he cleverly returned the extra pawn to get a totally crushing position where his rook and knight totally dominated Ben's rook and (very bad) bishop. Ben then lost on time in a position where he was bound to lose most of his pawns.

I was next to finish, and for the second successive game, I managed to throw away a completely won position (two extra pawns) after rather needlessly getting into time trouble. Just as I thought I was about to annex the full point Tom produced an unexpected bishop sacrifice which I couldn't accept due to mate. In a state of shock I decided to head for a draw but in the process made a bad mistake that could have put me on the defensive. Thankfully Tom was so relived to be getting a draw that he fell in with my plan and the game ended in perpetual check. I really need to get my act together!

At least the match was now won, which left Bruce in play against Chris Ward (no, not the GM!). Something had gone slightly wrong for Bruce in the opening, and he was obliged to give up/sac a pawn. It soon came down to queen and rook each, with plenty of pawns (Black having one more) but where Bruce had definite compensation through his greater piece activity. I imagine it should have been about equal, but when the queens got exchanged a couple of Black pawns suddenly dropped off and Bruce was winning, to make the final score 3.5-0.5 and send the B team to the top of the table! At least until the Kenilworth A v Banbury A match next Monday when one of those two teams will definitely jump ahead.

Obviously the B team's table topping position requires some suitably 'B' themed music. In fact, lets go double B and enjoy some historic footage of the Byrds and Bob Dylan, which is very apposite given that on the same night as the Leamington match Bob was appearing live in Coventry. (Anyone wanting a concert review should ask Dan, as I think he was going to be there!) Anyway, great version of Turn Turn Turn, followed by a slightly bizarre collaboration on Mr Tambourine Man, where Dylan sometimes appears to be singing a completely different song to the Byrds! But maybe that's just me. It doesn't help that the sound and film are properly synched, but what can you expect from such primitive times as 1990?? 

Another Week, Another Match Against Warwick University!

This season our various teams have to play against Warwick University a total of 10 times - 6 in the Leamington League and 4 in the Coventry League. Talk about over-kill! Of course, you never know who's going to turn out for them, as they have such a large group of players, so actually there is probably less chance of playing the same opponent over and over than there is with teams that we meet less often, but who have a settled team.

And so last night they descended on Kenilworth to play the third of our 10 encounters - but with just 1 of the team that drew with our A team a few weeks back, and only 2 of the team that beat our C team a week ago. Not one single player has appeared for them in all 3 matches. Their latest team was, by rating, the weakest they have fielded against us so far, and thankfully our B team just about took advantage with a hard earned 2.5-1.5 victory that lifted us up to 4th place in the table.

Though things looked far from promising to begin with, as Joshua fell for a very simple tactic against David Cebolla that cost him a piece and the game in rather quick order. I guess he had a train back to Manchester to catch. But this was eventually balanced by a hard fought win for Bruce on Board 2. He sacked an exchange for a pawn (or maybe two?) and a dangerous initiative on the kingside, and in time trouble and a difficult position his opponent, Piotr Arp, blundered a piece away.

Meanwhile, on Board 1, Ben Fearnhead had sacked a whole piece against me almost straight out of the opening, and seemed to have plenty of compensation as my pieces were dreadfully short of squares. But the computer tells me I was simply winning all the way until the end, when I spoilt a rather well played defence by walking into a series of dreadful pins. By this stage I was a whole rook up, but I simply couldn't move most of my remaining pieces - a queen on h8, king on h7, rook on g8 and bishop on g7 - due to a pin along the seventh rank and a double attack on g7 by a queen and bishop on the a1-h8 diagonal. All I could do was repeat the position by moving my extra rook to attack the White queen. Most frustrating to be a whole rook up, with half an army of pieces left on the board, and yet be in virtual zugzwang! Anyway, a very interesting and enterprising slugfest in which honours were shared.

Which left Mike to win the match for us on Board 4 against Bence Szakmanyi. After the game, Mike's opponent told him that his opening idea (an unexpected a5-a4 push with Black on moves 6 and 7) of a standard well known line, was part of an on-line course he had just completed, and that it had been played several times by Carlsen and many other top players - to Mike's complete ignorance. Despite this, it was Black that got into severe time trouble and with less than 1 minute left he accepted a piece sacrifice that allowed a forced mate - with the exact same combination Mike had played at least 35 years before his opponent was born!

A good, but hard fought win for the B team, who at full/near-full strength are a match for all but a couple of teams in Division 1.

This week's song seems very apposite given the frequency with which these two clubs will face each other this season. I think most of us can sing along to it, too!

Remarkably, I once saw the Three Degrees live, sometime in the 1970s! Not singing, of course, as its most definitely not my kind of music. They were appearing locally in cabaret (those were the days) and came on the pitch at Filbert Street (long gone!) to kick some giant inflatable balls around at half time in a Leicester v Coventry match! Don't ask me the score/result as that memory is long gone, but I do recall they were all wearing fur coats!! Well, it was a bit chilly.

No Firework Night Sparkle For Kenilworth C

We always knew that our matches against Warwick University were going to be amongst our most challenging. Still, buoyed by back to back victories and playing a strong but not at full strength Uni team, I thought we might be in with a shout. As it turned out, the upset never really looked on.

I had my usual battle with the Warwick Parking App, which can be trickier than the chess when you are in a rush, but that was the most dramatic part of my night. I was the first to finish, after a couple of hours, with a draw on Board 3 against Pitor Arp. The game had its moments but came down to a knight and pawns (him) v bishop and the same number of pawns (me) ending. His knight was well placed and he had the slightly better prospects of creating a passed pawn, but it felt like I had everything covered. The beauty of playing a University Student is that they are able to immediately analyse proceedings on their phone. Fritz's verdict? A final evaluation of + 0.0.

While I was never going to get more, I already knew that it was unlikely to be enough. Dhairya (Board 2 v Ben Fernhead) and Dave (Board 1 v Damirali Magzumov) went down to defeat practically simultaneously. All credit to Dhairya, who having been caught in an opening trap, then proceeded to bravely defend an excruciating looking position for far longer than seemed possible. It wasn't to be, but he showed excellent fighting qualities. I didn't see as much of Dave's game, but it appeared more double-edged, before his opponent seemed to get the better of proceedings. Playing Board 1 in Division 1 is always a tough gig, and Dave, like Dhairya, had made a good fight of it.

Last week I thought Dan would draw, and he won. This week, I thought he would win and he drew. It made no difference to the match result, but was another great example of Dan's growing strength. I thought he completely bossed the game, and was a pawn up in the ending. However, with no increment and short of time, it was a perfectly reasonable shout to split the point.

So 1 - 3 to Warwick Uni. No reason for us to launch any celebratory fireworks. Equally though, our survival hopes have far from gone up in smoke. If we keep performing as we have been, I am sure we will be fine.

Onwards!

Back to Back C Team Wins!

 Last night Kenilworth C played Leamington A for the first time since the Division 2 promotion decider a couple of years ago. On that occasion Leamington secured promotion to Division 1 with a narrow victory. We then followed Leamington up to the top League by winning Division 2 the following season. With this now a Division 1 fixture, Kenilworth C returned the favour after that fateful previous encounter, with a narrow win (despite being outgraded.) For once the proceedings were slightly more comfortable than the 2.5 - 1.5 score line suggested.

Dhairya got us off to a terrific start on Board 2 against Ben Egid.  Ben walked into a well-known opening trap minutes into the proceedings. Dhairya pocketed considerable material, and while Ben tried everything to complicate the position, Dhairya proceeded to completely outplay him. I was so impressed by Dhairya's calmness and his accuracy. To see another of our juniors performing so well on a high board in Division 1 is a real cause for celebration. Dhairya's chess is getting better and better and he is such an asset to the team.

Paul was next to finish on Board 1, unfortunately losing to Tom Darling after a Smith-Morra Gambit generated its usual complexities. I must admit, I did not see much of this, but I'm sure it would have been a good battle.

So 1-1, but I was winning on Board 3 against Joshua Simpson (of which more later) and I thought Dan looked very solid against Chris Ward on four. 

Dan keeps conjuring up the points and this proved to be no exception. In a quietish position he set up various tactical threats and ultimately found a fork to win a piece. In a very similar vein to Dhairya, Dan did not look back, and brought home the full point for another fantastic victory. I've written it before, but Dan is another player who is developing at a rate of knots, and making such a difference to the club.

My own night was somewhat bizarre. With a day job in a UK-US Business, it's not unusual for me to sometimes be on calls with the US in the evening, but I plan rigorously to ensure it doesn't cut across chess nights. Until yesterday, when at 6.40 I was told our US President (not that one) wanted to talk to me at 7.00. I sprinted across to Kenilworth and started the call sat in my car in the pitch-black car park. Eventually I moved inside to at least let the players know I was there. Eventually I managed to extract myself at 7.35 and Joshua very sportingly hadn't started the clocks.

I still have a job, but I don't think it was the best preparation. I started sluggishly and Joshua missed a good chance in the opening. I eased myself back into the game, set up a nice kingside attack and picked up a pawn.  As usual this all left me very short of time. I thought simplifying was the best way to go, but Joshua's passed pawn and bishop proved to be good compensation against my knight and extra pawn. I'm sure a computer would have found a win for me, but with seconds left on my clock (and conscious that a draw was all we needed to win the match) I split the point. It's not the first time this season that I've not managed to convert, but if you keep getting into decent positions, I know from experience that you are probably doing OK...

Last season we celebrated when the C team beat other clubs B teams. We can now add Leamington A to Olton A as C team scalps. Our priority remains to get enough points to stay up. I'm sure we can do it and yesterday was another good step...

Billy, Please Do Be a Hero

24 hours before our latest Coventry League match, against Nuneaton A, Billy wasn't even in the team (and had never played a single game in this League!), but with Keatan having to drop out there was a large hole on Board 1 that he thankfully stepped in to fill. And what an inspired piece of captaincy that turned out to be by yours truly, as Billy got the sole decisive result of the evening and steered us to a 2.5-1.5 win which - quite by chance - sent us to the top of the table on maximum points after 2 matches.

But for much of the evening I was fearing the worst, as an enterprising pawn sac in the opening by Phil Briggs seemed to put Billy in considerable trouble, and when Phil's rook crashed in on g7 and a Black rook was simultaneously hanging on a8 it looked like curtains for the youngest of our Candidate Masters. But what do I know? Billy somehow rode out the storm and then pocketed a whole piece when Phil completely forgot about his loose bishop that had previously captured the loose rook on a8. So Billy had an extra piece and a centre pawn then yomped down the board to queen and end the game. Phew!

The remaining games all ended, almost simultaneously, in draws. Mike, on 3 against Colin Green and Ben, on 4 against Maurice Staples both seemed to be pushing for much of the evening, but couldn't get a decisive edge, while I was the one hanging on in a rook ending a pawn down against Paul Davies. But with all the pawns on the same side of the board, it wasn't too difficult for me to hold the draw.

We've now got a three week gap till our next match, but after just two weeks of action we are the only team in Division 1 with a 100% score. Not bad considering we've already used 7 different players and are not taking the competition too seriously!

No special reason for this week's song. Except that I like it and its a great video. Like a 5 minute episode of Miami Vice, but with a killer song! Can't think what took me so long to choose it.

Controversy and Drama as U8750 Team Beats Olton

We had a true battle of the heavy-weights in the U8750 KO Cup last night. Kenilworth are the defending champions with back to back victories to our name. Olton were the last non-Kenilworth team to win the trophy, three years ago. They also outgraded us, with a team weighing in at 8746 to our 8519... It is unlikely that we will face stronger opponents in this year's competition, but our 3.5 - 1.5 victory does not tell the full story of a match that went to the wire. 

We lined up with four of the five players who had taken part in every round of last year's triumph. Our grades have gone up, so that original five aren't an eligible team anymore. Yet with Dhariya away, I was spared any difficult selection decisions. Algirdas was our new recruit on Board 5 (and ended up being one of our heroes, as we will see later in this report.) 

Dylan got us off to a very solid start with a relatively quick draw against Rob Reynolds on Board 4. Rob does draw a lot, but I was very pleased to see Dylan split the point so comfortably with such an experienced opponent.

All the other games went deep into the night. I was the next to finish on Board 2 against Richard Liszewski, who as I've noted in a previous report, I have a terrible record against. Last night went pretty well in comparison to many of my previous experiences with Richard. It was a very active game, with Richard attacking on the Kingside, me on the Queenside. Completely engrossing, but eventually we cancelled each other out to make it 1-1.

At which point, looking around the other boards, it was clear how tough it was going to be. Paul looked to be a little better against Mike Hollier on Board 1. Dan was struggling against Richard Reynolds on Board 3, and Algirdas didn't look like he had much against Warren Archibold  (and Algirdas was also playing on vapours timewise.)

As so often happens, things seemed to swing in those final twenty minutes. Paul launched a crashing attack out of nowhere. I didn't see exactly what happened, but he gave up material to drag Mike's king up the board. Suddenly, it seemed obvious he was winning, but I wouldn't have bet my house on it either. (Paul told me afterwards that he hadn't been totally confident, but his attacking instincts proved to be correct, as Mike's king fell deeper into a mating net.) A terrific win and Paul's two victories against Olton in a week have been integral to Kenilworth's improving fortunes.

All of which meant we were 2-1 up and with the win on Board 1, needed only half a point from the two remaining games. I thought Dan was completely finished in an impossible knight ending (more on this later) so the attention turned to Algirdas, who was starting to outplay Warren. The huge gulf between them on the clock narrowed to almost nothing as Algirdas marched his queenside pawns down the board. There might have been a mating chance in there somewhere, but no matter, as Algirdas's approach had conjured up an overwhelming position - and this was where the controversy started...

Deep in trouble on the board, Warren proceeded to run out of time. Unfortunately, Algirdas was so engrossed in his winning plans that he did not notice. A few moves later, Algirdas made an illegal move - at which point Rob and Warren asked for 2 minutes to be added to Warren's clock. I would welcome thoughts on this request.... In my view Warren had been out of time for a while and had clearly lost. Algirdas might not have pointed out that Warren's clock had run out previously, but clearly noticed it when the request for the extra two minutes was made. 

I thought Algirdas was still winning easily on the board and we agreed to give Warren the extra two minutes, but I did say to Rob and Warren that we reserved the right to appeal. As it turned out, Warren's position was so difficult that it made no difference, and he managed to almost immediately drop a rook and then run out of time (despite the extra two minutes.) This time Algirdas pointed it out instantly and we had won the match! Ultimately, it was a victory earned at the board and a great debut for Algirdas in the U8750 team. [Postscript on this - I had an affable chat with Rob and Warren in the Bar afterwards, and there were no hard feelings, but I said would seek guidance as to what should have happened, purely for future reference.]

Meanwhile, on Board 3, Dan was doing the impossible. He had somehow held together an exceptionally difficult knight and pawn endgame with immense skill. Somehow Richard had allowed his king and knight to be pulled to the queenside, with Dan only having to defend against pawns on the kingside. Remarkably, what had appeared to be a certain defeat was now a draw. A fantastic tribute to Dan's resilience under pressure and his growing prowess! Another very impressive performance.

So, an unbeaten start, as we aim for a hat-trick of titles. With the five who played tonight, plus Dhairya in the squad, I think we've got a really good chance. We will certainly give it our best shot...

Not a Draw in Sight

A rather delayed report of this week's match activity, which spread across two leagues, over two nights, with 8 games played - and all of them decisive. Who said chess is basically a draw? Not in Kenilworth, it isn't.

Monday night saw the first ever Kenilworth - Warwick University match in the Leamington League, but shelve any thoughts that this was a unique occasion, as there will be five more such encounters this season, plus four in the Coventry League for good measure. The series didn't get off to the perfect start, as Kenilworth A dropped it's first point of the season in a 2-2 draw. Our opponents came with a pretty useful team, but I was hoping we would pack enough of a punch to claim the victory, as we had deployed our strongest line-up so far this season and had a ratings edge on every board - slight on Boards 1 and 3, but substantial on 2 and 4.

I finished first, beating David Cebolla on Board 4 after he mistakenly gave up two pieces for a rook and pawn, and then immediately made a catastrophic oversight which led to the loss of his queen.  Not long after, Javier marked his first outing of the season by beating Magnus Borissow, making use of his extra exchange after carefully neutralising the threat from Black's pair of bishops. So two White games, and two White wins. Unfortunately that pattern continued for the rest of the match!

On Board 3, David had got himself into terrible trouble in the opening and was fighting a rearguard action to try and hold off a big attack on his highly vulnerable king. Eventually he had to give up his queen for two bishops, subsequently picking up an exchange to leave him with a pair of rooks and a bishop against queen and rook. The position may have been holdable, but David's king was very exposed and he had almost zero time. 10 seconds doesn't go very far in such circumstances and the inevitable loss duly arrived. Which left the match outcome depending on Jude's heavyweight Board 1 encounter with CM Edward Jackson. (No relation to IM James, who Jude had beaten a week earlier to heroically win our KO Cup tie against Banbury.) Jude sacked a pawn very early on to get an open g file against the White king and in a complex middle game had plenty of compensation - at the point where Jude's score sheet became indecipherable, the engine was giving him a clear edge. But when I returned to witness the final moments, things had changed horribly, and Jude was now 3 pawns down. although he made life very difficult for his opponent with two bishops and a rook. But pieces kept getting exchanged and when Black's last pawn disappeared the game was up and the match was drawn.

24 hours later it was another first, as we welcomed Daventry on their first ever Coventry League visit to Kenilworth, for what was their Division 1 debut. We had a sizeable rating edge on all 4 boards, and the match ended in a 3-1 win for us. I left after about 90 minutes (I was only present in my dogsbody role of setting everything up) knowing that we would soon be 1-0 up, as Phil - on his much anticipated return to the team - was material up with a dominant position against Abbie Stevens. Of course, the inevitable happened and Phil somehow contrived to lose - I need to give up making these predictions when I am a spectator as I keep getting them hopelessly wrong. But thankfully, the other games all went our way. Keatan won a rather wild game on Board 1, while Mike played very correct and sensible chess to bring home another point on Board 2. After pressing for most of the evening, Paul eventually found a rook sacrifice to secure a decisive advantage and clinch a solid victory. But 4-0 would have been much nicer!

So no shortage of blood and thunder in the two matches, and all 8 games being decisive. After a 4-0 win for White on Monday, Black cut back the deficit on Tuesday by winning 3-1.

No logical reason for this week's song, except that I went to see a Billy Joel tribute act last week and I guess he's at the top of my current musical memories. Plenty of cracking tunes to choose from, and here's the one you lucky readers get to hear now. I recommend putting the subtitles on or you'll likely miss half the lyrics!

The Famous Five

"You can't possibly do anything if you think you can't. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can." 

Enid Blyton

Future Kenilworth chess historians will look back at this week as one in which we achieved things that might once have seemed impossible. As Mark wrote in his blog yesterday, our Open team had a terrific win against Banbury in the Cup on Monday, led by Jude's Board 1 win against James Jackson. I still remember when Jude started. The idea way back then that he (or any other new starter) would one day be beating an International Master with Black would have seemed "impossible," but he did it - and of course this was far from his first IM scalp! A terrific achievement of which he, Paul, and everyone at the club is very proud.

On Tuesday night, Kenilworth C ratcheted up 2.5 points across four boards to beat Olton A in our Division 1 match. For many years, Olton were the League's juggernaut team winning title after title. If someone had told you not all that long ago that our C team would beat them in a Division 1 match, that too would have been seen as "impossible." But it's now in the books...

Olton are not quite as strong as they once were, but they are still formidable, and we were out graded on every board. It would take a statistician of Joshua's calibre to calculate the likelihood of four players coming out on top against 4 players who are higher graded than them (with significant differentials on three of the four boards.) Not "impossible," but far from easy. Which is what makes this achievement all the more special.

Added to the challenges, we had a lot of players unavailable and organising the team had been very difficult. Ultimately Mark's inspired suggestion that Michal might be available made all the difference...

Dan was back in the team against Richard Liszewski on Board 4, but couldn't quite replicate his heroics against Banbury. I personally always find Richard annoying to play against. Partly because he always yells "check" at the top of his voice, but mainly because we usually have a wild game that he wins. Dan's game had a familiar look to my watching eyes. Sharp, with chances for both sides and ultimately unsuccessful. Richard is undoubtedly a canny operator and late in the night his rook, queen and bishop combined to break through Dan's tough defences and put Olton ahead.

My game with Mike Hollier on Board 3 was the quietest of the evening. A lot of wood came off very quickly, but my early draw offer was declined. We played on for nearly the full three hours in a complicated rook and minor piece ending. Mike was slightly better for most of this, but over pressed and gave me the open "a" file for my rook, after which I had secured full equality and we split the point.

At the exact same moment, on Board 2, Paul Badger secured a fantastic win against Mark Cundy. An extremely tense game. Mark had been attacking with queen and knight on Paul's kingside, while Paul was pressing on the queenside (Mark having castled long.) Paul's bishop and queen were combining well with his rook on c8 to tighten his grip around the white king... I always thought Paul was better but it was one of those games that looked like it had the potential to go either way. Ultimately Paul held his nerve superbly to bring us level at 1.5 - 1.5.

We all gathered around Board 1 to watch the final moments of Michal's shoot-out with Alan Lloyd. This being the game where Olton had the biggest grading differential of them all... To my joy I saw that Michal was the exchange up, but there was a lot of play left. Eventually Michal gave back the exchange to put himself two pawns up. With opposite coloured bishops on the board, I felt (as did Michal) that Alan might still have played on. That said, it seemed as if Michal's excellent play all evening had taken the last drops of Alan's energy and Alan resigned to give us an "impossible" victory. A brilliant effort from Michal!

This will surely be remembered as the week in which Kenilworth teams' secured five famous points (2.5 in the Open Ko and 2.5 here) and two amazing wins!

I always said to the C team at the start of the season that our aim was to stay up this year. We might have had a difficult start, with not many of the breaks going our way before this week, but we've shown we've got the strength and depth to make the "impossible" happen. Warwick University (which will be tough) and Leamington await in the coming weeks. We're going to give this a really good go. If results do go our way, maybe we should even consider getting a dog...

Postscript - three votes of thanks...

 I did want to thank Paul Badger for suggesting The Famous Five theme for this piece and Mark again for thinking of Michal for this game. I also wanted to thank all the Kenilworth players who played in my online 50th birthday bash. It was a big deal for me and I really appreciate those who made the effort.

The Famous Two and a Half

In the Enid Blyton book series, the Famous Five were Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog. On Monday night, KCC got half way to replicating this well known group - despite having no women or canines in the team - when the Magnificent 2.5 (bad choice of phrase - now we seem to be missing 4.5 people!) somehow secured us victory over a very strong Banbury side in the first round of the Open KO Cup.

It's not easy writing a match report when you left the venue after only one hour of play, but as I'd just flown back from Croatia that morning after 9 successive days of chess, I was in no fit state to stay any longer. Thank goodness I did, as apparently it got rather tense at the end of the evening, and it might well have proved too much for me in my weakened condition!

I was very pessimistic when I went home, as I was already sure that Keatan was losing to Georgs Vikanis on Board 2, and Jude was faced with the most difficult task in Leamington League chess - Black against IM James Jackson on top board. With a tied match being decided by board elimination, starting on Board 5, we could already have been looking at having to win all the remaining 3 boards to avoid defeat. The good news was that Andrew (v Gary Jackson), Dave (v Tom Day) and Joshua (v Paul Rowan) all seemed to me to have some advantage. But none was remotely decisive and we clearly couldn't afford even a single accident, so it looked for all the world as though our run of five successive cup triumphs was going to end at the first hurdle.

But I was reckoning without the Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half!

As I discovered when I went online the following morning to read the inevitable news of our defeat. Except we hadn't lost. We had actually won - and on tie break, which had seemed an impossibility to me the night before. My reading of events was shown to be absolutely dreadful, since only one game - a win for Andrew on Board 3 - had turned out the way I expected. Far from winning on the bottom two boards, both Dave and Joshua had managed to lose and somehow Keatan, despite not being in the best of health, had bravely turned round his dreadful looking position to secure a draw.

However, the mathematically advanced amongst you will have worked out that this left us trailing 2.5-1.5, with only the top board game remaining. But there the result quite clear showed a win for Jude - yes, our new FM had beaten Banbury's long standing IM, in what was possibly the highest level game ever played in the Leamington League. And so by levelling the scores, Jude had secured victory for us on tie-break. Probably the most dramatic conclusion to a KCC match since Paul beat Phil Holt on Board 1 in the 2017 Cup Final (after Phil had turned down Paul's draw offer that would have won the Cup for Olton!) to secure a 2.5-2.5 draw and a Kenilworth win on tie break!

So there you have it - some new legends are born! The Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half, who won the day against all the odds. An amazing effort by our top three boards, who have all now officially been inducted to the KCC Pantheon of Heroes, spearheaded by Jude's brilliant win. It would be quite a blow if we didn't make it 6 Cup triumphs in a row after such an epic performance. We owe it to our Heroes!

No more heroes? Oh yes there are!

Dhairya and Dan Excel vs Banbury A

 We always knew Banbury "A" Away was going to be one of the C team's toughest fixtures this season. Even if we'd been at full strength they would have been heavy favourites. Missing Dave, Paul and Rhys, it seemed like an even tougher gig. This initial appraisal seemed to be confirmed when we arrived to find IM James Jackson in the house, and an exceptionally strong Banbury line up awaiting us. I guess we have to take that as a sign of their respect for Kenilworth...

In the event we went down 3-1 but with two exceptional performances. First up, Dan shrugged off a near 400 point rating differential against Tom Day to put us 1-0 up. It was an excellent game, in which Dan, making his Division 1 debut, unleashed a supurb tactic to trap Tom's queen. A real testament to Dan's continuing progress. What a great effort! Dan is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Myself and Dylan (also making his Division 1 debut) both struggled against stronger players with the black pieces. I don't recall playing Georgs Vikanis before, but while I made a game of it, the truth is it was never particularly close. Meanwhile Gary Jackson built up a brutal looking attack against Dylan and we were both finished around the two hour mark.

All of which left Dhairya against James Jackson. I can't remember seeing an effort as good as Dhairya's. Perhaps aided by the fact that he had no idea who James was until afterwards, Dhairya played brilliantly!! While he was never winning, he took James into a level rook and pawn and then a level pawn endgame, which James said afterwards was "extremely difficult." Ultimately James found a way to exploit his slightly better pawn structure, but Dhairya had pushed him to the very limit. A terrific game! Sometimes the result does not tell the whole story, so hopefully this write-up rebalances that, by giving Dhairya all the accolades he deserves for his incredible performance. 

As one of the Banbury players said to me afterwards "where do you keep finding these amazing juniors?" I just smiled - we are very lucky to have Dhairya and Dylan to say nothing of all the other juniors in our ranks, whatever team they are in.

There are no easy Division 1 games, but I'm hopeful that if we keep playing like this, we will win some matches. Even though we lost last night, I left feeling particularly proud of what Dhairya and Dan had achieved.

Billy is a Warwickshire Champion - and Nearly Doubles Up!

Though this report is a bit belated, I couldn't let last weekend's Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz Championships pass without recording the fact that KCC has another Warwickshire Champion! Billy put up a dazzling performance to take first place in Sunday's Blitz event, conceding just a single draw to Finlay Bowcott-Terry, and ending up with 13.5/14 after 7 double rounds. This put him 1.5 points clear of the field, which was dominated by young Warwickshire players.  Billy, who recorded a massive TPR of 2416, follows Javier, who won in 2023, as a recent KCC holder of this title.

And it was so nearly a double triumph for our young Candidate Master, as he was just edged out of first place in Saturday's Rapid event, where his unbeaten 6/7 saw him finish second to Finlay Bowcott-Terry. After a draw between the two of them, the title was decided when Billy dropped half a point to the experienced South Birmingham player Cory Hazlehurst in Round 6. Which meant he "only" posted a rapid TPR of 2350. These are numbers most of us can only dream about!

A truly astonishing weekend then for Billy, going undefeated over 21 games, and conceding just 3 draws! I'm afraid chess really is a young person's game. Which isn't particularly good news for me on the eve of playing in the European Seniors Championships!!

This performance definitely deserves a song. If only we could all have chess days like Billy.

B - Dazzling

After being on the receiving end of a rather brutal score line at the hands of Kenilworth A, the B team's second match of the season saw a complete reversal of fortune as Solihull A were despatched by a very impressive 3.5-0.5. But yet again, and as I seem to write in every match report, the bare score hides the drama of the evening, as every board could well have ended differently. Such is chess at our level! So let's just celebrate a very impressive victory, without getting too hung-up about how we got there!!

David was making one of his rare appearances for the club, but showed that despite (a) now being in full time employment and (b) seemingly hardly ever playing a game of chess, he is still a rather formidable opponent by taking down Don Mason, with Black, on Board 1. David seemed to be taken by surprise in the opening, but when Don failed to play a very strong line early on, David played near perfect chess. He occupied the centre and forced Don into a dangerous, but unsound, piece sac, after which he took over for a very surprisingly quick win, against a formidable opponent who had gone through last season unbeaten in the Leamington League.

Joshua dodged an even bigger bullet on Board 3 against Julian Summerfield as he lost a pawn to a White rook on the seventh rank for - seemingly - no compensation whatsoever. But, as we've seen on countless occasions before, material deficits and dodgy positions don't worry Joshua and somehow he contrived to win back his pawn and then bamboozle Julian into losing a pawn which gave Josh a mighty passed a pawn which duly marched up the board to victory.

So 2-0 to us on our 2 Black boards, and the match victory was confirmed when Mike drew against Tony Sadler on Board 4. Mike won a pawn, but Tony generated a very dangerous kingside attack and its quite likely that all three results were still possible when a draw was agreed deep into mutual time trouble.

Meanwhile, I had won a pawn against Ray Carpenter and when I added a second as we went into a rook and bishops endgame I thought it was all over, especially as I had a massive pawn wedge on d5, e6 and f5 . However, Ray got his king to f6, and even though I was two pawns up and bishops came off, it was far from straightforward. As I proved by going wrong, panicking and giving my rook up for Ray's last pawn to give me passed a and b pawns supported by my king against his rook. But the pawns weren't far enough forward, and Ray's king was too close to the pawns for comfort. In desperate time trouble both players traded mistakes on a regular basis, but Ray made the biggest one of all, when he missed a move that would have won both my pawns and the game. Somehow I bluffed my way into queening one of the pawns, and in the resultant q v r ending Ray couldn't get a good co-ordination of his last two pieces, eventually losing on time as I was poised to deliver mate or win his rook. Not a game to be proud of, but all I can say is a win's a win!

Time for some music. And who doesn't love a bit of Blue Sky?

Natural Order Restored

After last season's shocking events when the B team took 3 match points off the A team, the world seems to have been put back on its normal axis and natural order to have been restored. The A team prevailed in the first of this season's 2 encounters last night by 3.5-0.5 - but only after a tough fight. It seemed likely to be a closer result for much of the evening, but as the positions got critical it was the A team players who packed the bigger punch.

Kenilworth B (on right, front to back - Ben, Rhys, Mike and Josh) v Kenilworth A (on left, front to back - Andy, Andrew, Keatan and Jude)

Andrew was the first to bring in the full point, beating Rhys after a chaotic game in which I had great difficulty counting up the pieces for each side. At one point I thought Andrew was two pawns down for nothing. Then I saw he had two rooks to Rhys's one and assumed he had an exchange by way of compensation. Then afterwards I discovered that Andrew had actually been a whole rook up! Good job I wasn't playing. The game finished in a flurry of tactics which ended up with Rhys's queen falling off.

History was made in the second game to finish when the first FM ever to play a match for Kenilworth notched up the full point for the A team. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think KCC's first ever FM, Adam Collinson, got the title after leaving the area.) Yes, Jude won the battle of the J-men against Joshua after a very smooth and convincing game, where he ended up annexing a large number of Josh's pawns. Playing Black against Jude is not an easy task these days!

I was then on hand to witness the exciting climax of the Bd 4 encounter between Ben and the seldom-sighted Andy B. Andy had seemed to be better out of the opening, and Ben's position looked a bit passive, but he had somehow whipped up a very dangerous looking attack against Andy's king on a8, with rooks on a3 and b1 (both semi-open files), a queen on b3 and a bishop on f2. Despite being short of time (of course) he then uncorked the very aesthetically pleasing move Qb6 (Black had pawns on a7 and b7) threatening mate by Rxa7+.  (He may also have been threatening Q x N on c6, when bxc6 could have been met by Rxa7 mate, but I can't remember if Black was defending laterally along his own second rank with a rook. Well, there was a lot going on!) A lesser man might have fallen off his chair (or started to run for the hills with his king (Kb8), but Andy had anticipated Ben's Frank Marshall-esque move and uncorked a splendid combo involving QxR on b1 and after kxb1 (Qxb1 Re1 would also have won back the queen) then checks on the first and second ranks with the two black rooks forcing the White king to b3, when Rb1 check won back the White queen on b6 and left Andy with a won Rook and minor piece ending. A very exciting conclusion.

Which just left the possibly even more exciting Board 2 game between Mike and Keatan in play. It looked to me like Mike was better/winning, but the position  was ridiculously tactical, with unprotected pieces flying around the board in all directions. Keatan's king seemed to be in the bigger danger, but Mike's was not entirely safe either. The complexity was making my brain hurt so I left the room, and the players did the same shortly after when neither of them could stand the tension any longer and a draw had been agreed. Though Mike tells me that he had a winning position at the end, but with no time to find the only winning move in a still ridiculously complex position. Full-on, no holds barred chess!

So a mirror image of the score-line from the corresponding fixture last September, and one that sits rather more easily with the natural order of things. The B team still has to play the C team, but at least the A team can now concentrate on playing other clubs!

A purely random musical selection this week. Heard the song for the first time in years at the Abbey Club last night, I like it, so that will have to be reason enough!

Disaster

 I am writing this now, such that tomorrow can truly be another day. Essentially we lost to Stratford and it was all my fault. Dave Ireland had a good win against Richard McNally on one. Dhairya who had answered a late call to play, for which we are hugely grateful, had an excellent draw on three. Paul went down on two, but it was my game against Carl Hibbard which was key.

I picked up a pawn in the opening and built up a very strong attack. As ever, I am my own worst enemy, and I got into time trouble yet again. With a huge advantage on the board, but not much left on my clock, I somehow contrived to pick up the wrong piece. I wasn't sure if Carl had even seen or not, as he was just re-entering the room, but there was no question in my mind that I had to do the sporting thing and play the piece.  Unfortunately, to my horror, all options with it left me completely lost.

Absolutely excruciating, not only costing me the game, but also costing us the match. I would say it was probably the most painful defeat I have ever had, and that's saying something. I don't really have any positives to add. Except perhaps, we've shown again that we can be competitive. Maybe sometimes, we just have to put our personal disasters down to experience and move on.  

There will doubtless be other days, but I am glad this one is done.

C the Stars - but A the Winners

An historic match - Kenilworth C (left, near to far) Ben, Rhys, Paul and Dave v Kenilworth A (right, near to far) Josh, Bruce, Keatan and Billy

In what may - or may not - have been the first ever Kenilworth A v Kenilworth C encounter, the glory was all for the C team, though the spoils - and points - went to the A team. But its Sea The Stars/C the Stars that gets the video!

The games finished in reverse board order, so that Josh and Ben were the first across the finishing line, with Ben's extra pawn in a rook ending countered by Joshua's enormous clock advantage. Black might well have been winning, but he would have to have risked losing to go for the full point and so the game instead ended in a repetition. So slight advantage to the C team with one large rating disadvantage - and one of the A team's White boards comfortably neutralised.

I think I missed much of the excitement in the game between Rhys and Bruce on Board 3, due to socialising with the chess dads (Ed and Nash) in the bar, but apparently the players took it in turn to sac an exchange. Bruce seemed to be a pawn up (I don't really trust my ability to count these days, so I may have got this wrong) but his pawn structure was pretty grotty. Eventually Rhys won back his pawn - after looking for all the world like he was about to fall into a cheapo - and again the A team clock advantage was enough to secure a draw before any of Bruce's weak pawns came under attack.

So not very convincing by the A team so far, but surely the youngbloods on the top two boards would win the day. Eventually yes, but it was by no means straightforward. Keatan seemed to have a really good opening and started building a kingside attack, but Paul B was in no mood to roll over and defended stoutly. At one point Keatan seemed to have got over-optimistic with an exchange sac, but Paul declined to take it and instead started developing his own attack against Keatan's rather exposed king. Black won a pawn (and possibly a second) but in big time trouble Paul found his queen and bishop skewered and when the piece fell off there was no way to adequately defend the back rank. Phew - thank goodness Keatan played this just in time ..............

So at least the A team weren't going to lose, and the match result came down to top board. Dave and Billy had a great set to. Of course, I missed much of the action, but by the time I started watching Dave was up an exchange for a pawn - but Billy had a big mass of centre pawns which was blotting out Dave's bishop on b2. However, White's rook was very active and his queen was also in a very threatening position - but the centre pawns were rolling. It was very tense and there was little time left for either player. Somehow Billy got the exchange back, but Dave then sacked his bishop for Black's three centre pawns, so we ended up with queen h, g and f pawns for Dave and queen, knight and h pawn for Billy. Dave's h3 pawn fell off, but the White queen started checking. And checking. And checking. There may well have been a repetition, but no-one was keeping score. It looked like Billy was making no progress, but he now used the time he had accumulated to find a fantastic plan which ended up with his knight jumping into f3 (check) and supporting it with a king on g4. The engine says it was still drawn but under severe clock pressure Dave couldn't find the only move to save the game, and Billy jumped in on the back rank - crucially with check - to deliver mate. An epic encounter and one that reflected great credit on both players for enormous fighting spirit and imaginative play.

So 3-1 to the A team, but by no means a completely convincing performance. 

Our song celebrates the adventures of Billy's knight, venturing far into enemy territory and - though pinned, seemingly for all eternity - providing the vital support for the Black queen to deliver mate on g1. It was indeed "a long way from home", but crucially it lived to tell the tale! (And yes, I know this song has featured here once before, but I can't think of anything else. It's not easy coming up with something new every post!)

Javi Es Campeon de KCC, 2025

I knew it; I just knew it. Despite going into the third and final leg of the inaugural KCC Speed Chess Championship with a commanding lead, the tournament format (best 2 scores to count) meant that unless I got at least 6.5/7, Javi would overtake me if he reached this score. I thought that meant I would have to at least draw with him in our individual encounter to stand any chance, and I wasn't particularly hopeful. But I needn't have worried, as I played so dreadfully in Leg 3 that I never even got to play him! My hopes instead were - short of a major surprise result, all riding on Billy, a late entry and making his only appearance in the Championships, to take down the Man from La Mancha and secure the life changing first prize of £25 (twice what I won at the British Seniors Championship!) for me. Unfortunately for me, the Billy-Javi game ended in a draw, and with both winning every other game they tied for first place on the night.

There were some excellent performances on the night, with especially notable results for Algis and Patrick (who both wiped the floor with me!)  However, this wasn't enough to take them past Ben in the race for the U-1750 rating prize (another £25), even though he was unable to improve on his score from the first two legs. Though he did manage to draw with me again, to take his score to 2/3 as we played in every leg - all I needed was a half point more from either of the first two games and I'd have been the champ, so as well as winning his section, he also turned out to be the Kingmaker!

So the final Club Speed Championship Leaderboard/Points were:-

1 Javi 12.5
2 Mark 12.3 
3 Keatan 10.1
4 Mike 8.9
5 Ben 8.7 (and the U1750 Rating Prize)
6 Dave 8.2
7 Algis 8.0 (2nd U1750)
8 Dylan 7.0 (3rd U1750)

So many congratulations to Javi and Ben for their successes, and commiserations to those who were just pipped at the post - ie me!!

Do you think that was Spanish enough to commemorate Javi's victory??

In total, we had 18 participants who played in at least 1 of the three events - well over half the club's total membership - so this must be judged a major success and a triumph for Ben, who both created and organised the event - and then went and won his section as well! (Not forgetting the massive contribution of Gregory in his Chief Arbiter and Swiss-Manager supremo roles.) In fact it was such a success, we may well do something similar at Christmas, though that may have to be a one-off due to time constraints. Maybe we could get all our titled players to turn out for that?!

Clearly the most appropriate video to accompany this report would have been Yvonne Fair singing "It Should Have Been Me", but I've used that before (when I was also pipped at the post in something else!), so I won't bother trying to be relevant. Instead, I'll just delve into YouTube and pull out a random musical tour de force. Wonder what it will be?

What a suprise - Jackson Browne! Who could ever have guessed? And bonus appearances by Bonnie Raitt on vocals, Bruce Hornsby on piano and - of course - the wonderful David Lindley on steel guitar. Just magical. Wish I'd been there.

British Championships 2025

Well, my plan to file some regular reports from the front line in Liverpool clearly didn't work too well. what with sight-seeing, playing and then eating and drinking there simply wasn't enough time left for me to slave over a hot lap-top and keep you stay-at-homes up to date with how our brave lads were getting on. But - better late than never - I can at least provide a round up of how the KCC battalion ultimately fared.

Star billing has to go to our two junior sensations, Jude and Billy, who both performed admirably in the Championship event, both eventually finishing on 4.5/9 after a last round draw between themselves. Not the pairing either would have wanted to finish on, but at least no-one went home a loser! Jude's high point was obviously the win over IM Brandon Clarke which took him above 2300 and qualified him for the FM title, while Billy had an excellent event too, and gained 62 rating points. And it could have been even more as he had both IM Andrew Ledger and GM Nigel Davies on the edge of defeat. Crucially, he was unbeaten in the last three rounds when borrowing a pen from me! Between them, Jude and Billy only played 3 non-titled players across 18 games, which illustrates what a strong event this was. Excellent results and performances at such a young age.

Bruce was in the running for a high placing in the 50+ event, but a last round loss - when a win would have placed him clear third - sent him down the table to 9th=, but with a hefty rating gain. Ben made his debut in Seniors' chess in this event and finished 26th= from a starting rank of 41 and also gained rating points, as he did with his excellent 4th= finish in the U1900 morning tournament. (Which netted him £20, to boot!) Ed and I flew the flag for KCC in the 65+ event where, from 81 starters I finished 4th= (winning £12.50 - its big money at the British Champs!) and Ed was 44th= - in both cases well above our starting ranks. Finally, as far as proper chess is concerned, Keatan found it hard going in the Major Open but still scored above 50% in his unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2026 British Championships. Which, if you haven't already heard, will be held at Warwick University - so no excuses for not playing next year! I guess I should also mention the Blitz and Rapid events, but only because Joshua managed to finish 3rd= in the U-2000 rapidplay event and take home £18.50, which must have more than paid for his day return from Manchester!

And I can't let the event pass by without mentioning that the recent slayer of KCC at our 50th anniversary simultaneous display, GM Mickey Adams, collected a 9th British Championship title to go with his recent English Championship success. What a player - not bad for a 53 year old! And he fully deserved to see his image up in lights on an enormous billboard opposite the playing hall. Don't think I've seen chess get such large scale promotion before.

Disappointing that none of KCC's finest managed to make it onto the advert along with Gawain, Mickey and Nikita!

Liverpool proved to be a very interesting host city - plenty to see and do and no shortage of accommodation, food and beverage options. Especially the last named! And what a venue we played in - Warwick University will do well to find anywhere on campus as impressive as this!

The grade 1 listed St George's Hall

Which was equally impressive inside!

Slightly larger than the Abbey Club!

Although it has to be said that the tradesmen's entrance the chess players had to use was slightly less imposing.

The way in looked like the entry to some public toilets. And not very nice ones at that!

Liverpool, famously, has two cathedrals which stare at each other from either end of the marvellously appropriate Hope Street.

The truly monumental Anglican Cathedral, seen from the steps of the Catholic Cathedral, half a mile away. It is the longest and fifth largest cathedral in the world. But definitely not the most beautiful.

The RC Cathedral, designed by Coventry kid Sir Frederick Gibberd - also
famous as the architect of Didcot Power Station and Harlow New Town!

When I wasn't busy preparing for my battles on the chessboard (ie most of the time) I took advantage of the free mornings to visit some landmark sites associated with several of Liverpool's most famous sons and daughters.

Who lived in a house like this? John Lennon!

So no prizes for guessing this was the childhood home of Paul McCartney

Surprise, surprise! It's Cilla again.

And another surprise - who knew that the 100 Another Place statues by Antony Gormley on Crosby beach were actually modelled on the most famous of all Liverpool icons - the Diddymen?!

To avoid any confusion, please note that I am on the left.

After this bumper pictorial city tour (aren't you relieved there was no photography allowed in the Beatles's former homes?!) you'd think I'd have no energy left for a musical contribution as well. But you'd be wrong. How could I miss the opportunity to present one of Liverpool's most celebrated musical acts singing about an ancestor of a KCC legend? Answer - I couldn't!

Jude is an FM!

Fantastic news from the British Championships at Liverpool, where yesterday Jude had a tremendous win over the very strong IM Brandon Clarke (for the second time in a month, both with Black), finishing with a brilliant rook sac. You can play through the game here. After this win, Jude's live ELO rating has gone over 2300, which means he has qualified to become a Fide Master. This makes him only the second KCC player ever to become an FM, after Adam Collinson, though I'm pretty sure Adam didn't reach this milestone at the age of just 15!! Many congratulations from everyone at the club, Jude. Your success is absolutely brilliant.

It was very nearly an even more special day, as Billy was on the verge of taking down another IM, Andrew Ledger, but somehow the more experienced player saved a desperate looking rook ending and prevented an IM-bashing double by KCC juniors. So after 4 rounds of the Championships, Jude has a fantastic 3 pts with Billy on a more than respectable 2 pts. Today its another very tough pairing for Jude, against Ukrainian IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, while Billy plays FM Stephen Dishman. Good luck to them both, and indeed to all KCC participants. Which includes myself, of course!

More news as and when I can find the time/energy!

The Storm Before the Even Bigger Storm

It was the second instalment of the inaugural Kenilworth Speed Chess Championships last night, and ten intrepid players assembled to contest a five round rapid chess Swiss with a time limit of 10'+5".

Fresh from my surprise joint first place in leg 1, I found myself as clear top seed this time around, mainly thanks to everyone else having either ridiculously low rapid ratings (yes Keatan, that means you!) or no rapid rating at all. In the absence of our Swiss Manager supremo, Gregory, tournament organiser Ben had to revert to the tried and trusted analogue method of pen, scraps of paper and trial and error to make the pairings, but despite the distractions of also playing in the event, he coped admirably with the pressure and kept the show on the road.

Round 1

Mark 1 – 0 Bernard 
Ben 0.5 – 0.5 Mike 
Dave 1 v 0 Rhys
Keatan 1 v 0 Algis
Patrick 0 v 1 Paul B

Round 2

Paul B 0 – 1 Mark
Mike 1 – 0 Patrick
Keatan 1 – 0 Dave
Bernard 1 – 0 Ben
Rhys 1 – 0 Algis

Round 3

Mark 1 v 0 Keatan
Dave 0 v 1 Mike
Paul B 0.5 – 0.5 Bernard
Ben 1 – 0 Rhys
Algis 1 – 0 Patrick

Round 4

Mike 0 v 1 Mark
Dave 1 – 0 Algis
Bernard 0 – 1 Keatan
Ben 1 – 0 Paul B
Patrick 0 – 1 Rhys

Round 5

Mark 0.5 – 0.5 Ben
Mike 1 – 0 Rhys
Patrick 0 – 1 Dave
Paul B 0 -1 Keatan
Algis 0 – 1 Bernard

At the end of the evening I had just about managed to justify my number 1 seeding, finishing on 4.5/5, ahead of Keatan the rating bandit on 4. The full standings were:-

1 Mark 4.5 
2 Keatan 4
3 Mike 3.5
4= Ben and Dave 3
6 Bernard 2.5
7 Rhys 2
8 Paul B 1.5
9 Algis 1
10 Patrick 0

The tournament was very hard fought, with the 5 rounds not concluding until around 10.30, and many games lasting close to 30 minutes. I almost lost count of the number of drawn out queen endings I had to play!

For the second successive event, I got to the final round with a 100% score (after a very lucky Rd 4 win over Mike) but - just like last time - I found Ben a very difficult opponent. At least this time I didn't lose, which was just as well, as Keatan won his last round encounter against Paul and would have tied if Ben had done the double over me. I don't know what it is about Ben's play, but he's got me totally psyched out now!

The even bigger storm referenced in the title of this article could be either Leg 3 of the KCC Speed Championship (which will be another Blitz event on August 28th) or the imminent British Championships which are about to start in Liverpool. KCC's 2 junior CMs are both in action in the Championship proper (but with starting ranks of 43 (Jude) and 72 (Billy) you can tell this is a monstrously strong event. Keatan is flying the KCC flag in the Major Open, where he is seeded 17th (of 137!) aiming for one of the 10 qualifying places available for the 2026 British Championship. Ben makes his debut in the 50+ Championships (seeded 41) where he is joined by Bruce (start rank 24). Of course, Ben is also playing in a morning tournament as well, and a couple of Blitz evenings. Good luck to him I say, but count me out of such an intensive schedule - I've got sight-seeing, eating, drinking and sleeping to take care of! Keatan, Bruce and - surprise, surprise - Joshua will also be blitzing two of their evenings away. Madness, sheer madness!

Well, why not? It is Liverpool we're going to!

Ed (seeded 60) and myself (21) are the two KCC representatives in the 65+ event. The chances of me repeating my shock joint first in 2019 are consequently very low.

So we haven't quite been able to match the even larger turnout we had in Torquay back in 2019, but its still a respectable showing. Good luck to all and who knows, there may even be a report or two of proceedings posted here.

Now, we've had this song before (no idea if it was this same video), but it would be careless of me not to continue the theme. So here goes.